Edward nodded, sipped his coffee. Something moved behind his eyes, something liquid and dangerous. His expression hadn't changed, I'd swear to it, but it was suddenly all I could do to meet his eyes.
"Why were you following me, Edward?"
"I was told you would be meeting with the new Master tonight."
"Who told you that?"
He shook his head, that inscrutable smile curling his lips. "I was inside the Circus tonight, Anita. I saw who you were with. You played with the vampires, then you went home, so one of them has to be the Master."
I fought to keep my face blank, too blank, so the effort showed, but the panic didn't show. Edward had been following me, and I hadn't known it. He knew all the vampires I had seen tonight. It wasn't that big a list. He'd figure it out.
"Wait a minute," I said. "You let me go up against that snake without helping me?"
"I came in after the crowd ran out. It was almost over by the time I peeked into the tent."
I drank coffee and tried to think of a way to make this better. He had a contract to kill the Master, and I had led him right to him. I had betrayed Jean-Claude. Why did that bother me?
Edward was watching my face as if he would memorize it. He was waiting for my face to betray me. I worked hard at being blank and inscrutable. He smiled that close, canary-eating grin of his. He was enjoying himself. I was not.
"You only saw four vampires tonight: Jean-Claude, the dark exotic one who must be Yasmeen, and the two blonds. You got names for the blonds?"
I shook my head.
His smile widened. "Would you tell me if you had?"
"Maybe."
"The blonds aren't important," he said. "Neither of them were master vamps."
I stared at him, forcing my face to be neutral, pleasant, attentive, blank. Blank is not one of my better expressions, but maybe if I practiced enough...
"That leaves Jean-Claude and Yasmeen. Yasmeen's new in town; that just leaves Jean-Claude."
"Do you really think that the Master of the freaking City would show himself like that?" I put all the scorn I could find into my voice. I wasn't the best actor in the world, but maybe I could learn.
Edward stared at me. "It's Jean-Claude, isn't it?"
"Jean-Claude isn't powerful enough to hold the city. You know that. He's, what, a little over two hundred? Not old enough."
He frowned at me. Good. "It's not Yasmeen."
"True."
"You didn't talk to any other vampires tonight?"
"You may have followed me into the Circus, Edward, but you didn't listen at the door when I met the Master. You couldn't have. The vamps or the shapeshifters would have heard you."
He acknowledged it with a nod.
"I saw the Master tonight, but it wasn't anyone who came down to fight the snake."
"The Master let his people risk their lives and didn't help?" His smile was back.
"The Master of the City doesn't have to be physically present to lend his power, you know that."
"No," he said, "I don't."
I shrugged. "Believe it or not." I prayed, please let him believe.